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International Journal of Automotive

Engineering and Technologies

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Original Research Article

Investigation of the effect of the use of top deflectors on

aerodynamic performance in vehicles with CFD analysis

Haydar Kepekçi1, *
1, * Mechatronics Engineering Department, İstanbul Gelişim University, 34310, İstanbul, Türkiye.
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Orcid Numbers Carbon-containing waste gases from vehicle exhausts are one of the main causes
1. 0000-0002-0037-8332 of climatic disasters. This problem is tried to be solved by reducing the amount
of energy consumed by vehicles while they are in motion. To reduce fuel
Doi: 10.18245/ijaet.1220476 consumption, it is necessary to reduce the effect of aerodynamic drag force,
* Corresponding author
which is the resistance on the solid surface in motion. It is known that high
[email protected] aerodynamic drag force increases fuel consumption. Reducing aerodynamic drag
force is important not only for fuel consumption but also for wind noise and
Received: Dec 17, 2022 roadholding. Heavy vehicles such as trucks have high drag forces due to the
Accepted: Apr 24, 2023 width of their surface areas. However, this situation can be minimized with
Published: 30 Jun 2023
changes to be made in vehicle designs. In this study, the effect of the use of top
deflectors on the drag force for trucks has been investigated. In this theoretical
study, separate calculations have been made for different vehicle velocities and
Published by Editorial Board the results have been compared among themselves. In this study, which has been
Members of IJAET carried out using the computational fluid dynamics method, k-e has been
© This article is distributed by preferred as the turbulence method. As a result, it has been concluded that the
Turk Journal Park System under use of top deflectors reduces drag force, which in turn reduces fuel consumption.
the CC 4.0 terms and conditions.
Keywords: Aerodynamics, Computational fluid dynamics, Drag force, Top deflector.

1. Introduction natural gas [2]. As a result, the fluctuation in the

prices of one of the energy sources spreads to
With the increasing dependence on technology
the other. As a result of the disagreements in the
in the rapidly globalizing world, energy
political process that started with the invasion of
requirement has increased at the same rate.
Ukraine by Russia, the world's largest energy
Owing to the recent Covid-19 pandemic, it has
exporter, in 2021, natural gas and oil shipments
been seen that both education and business life
to Europe came to a halt [3]. The industrial
can be carried out remotely online. In the post-
production of the European countries, which
pandemic period, some schools and workplaces
experienced fluctuations in energy imports,
have decided to continue the remote working
decreased significantly and the prices of
model. As a result of this situation, many houses
products increased. Countries facing the danger
have also started to be used as workplaces and
of economic instability have started to seek new
the energy consumption of the houses has
energy sources for themselves. It is obvious that
increased [1]. Most of the
the use of petroleum will not be abandoned
electrical energy is produced from oil and
45 International Journal of Automotive Engineering and Technologies, IJAET 12 (1) 44-50

soon, both because renewable energy sources method. The main reason for the widespread use
are not as efficient as conventional fuels and of the CFD method is that it saves time and
because it will take a long time to abandon money. The CFD method, which eliminates the
vehicle engines that are currently in use. What necessity of setting up an experimental setup for
needs to be done in this case is to reduce the any scientific study, is frequently used both in
amount of oil used. Petrol, which is an energy academia and in the sector [7]. Nabutola and
type with a wide usage area, is mostly used in Boetcher investigated the effect of underbody
the fuel needs of vehicle engines [4]. flow deflection of conventional and air-jet
It is known that if the energy consumption of wheel deflectors on vehicle drag in their study
vehicles is reduced, the use of oil will also using the CFD method. As a result of their
decrease. There are different studies on this research, they found that conventional wheel
subject. In addition to modifications that will deflectors only reduced wheel drag but
increase the efficiency of vehicle engines, new increased overall drag by close to 10%. They
designs are also made for vehicle body models. found that air-jet wheel deflectors, on the other
One of the changes made in addition to these hand, reduced drag by up to 1.5% at velocities
designs is the part attachment called the of 35 m/s and above [8]. Khosravi et al. [9]
deflector [5]. Parts called deflectors, which are investigated the effects of the use of deflectors
designed to reduce aerodynamic drag, which is and cabin blades on heavy commercial vehicle
one of the energy loss causes of vehicles, also drag. For their study, they modeled the vehicle
increase driving performance. body structure and made a CFD analysis. As a
Aerodynamic drag is proportional to the result, they found that the drag coefficient
geometry of the vehicle. It is recommended to decreased by 20% when the cabin wing was
use deflectors to reduce the amount of energy added to both front edges of the cabin. If a
lost by heavy vehicles such as trucks, tractors, suitable deflector is used in addition to the cabin
trailers, and lorries from aerodynamic drag. wing, they achieved a 41% drag reduction
Considering that the aerodynamic drag compared to the simple model.
increases as the vehicle velocity increases, it is McCallen et al. [10], modeled the aerodynamic
concluded that it is a priority to revise the flow using the tractor-trailer model with the
geometric models of the vehicles that are CFD method. They used RANS modeling in
frequently used on intercity roads and highways. their work. They also developed a formulation
As a result of the research, it has been seen that to calculate aerodynamic flow using the LES
the truck drag forces can be reduced by up to model [10]. Miralbes and Castejon investigated
50%. Considering that the annual fuel cost per boat tails to reduce aerodynamic forces in heavy
truck is 20 thousand dollars, the reduction in vehicles and compared the results. They used
energy consumption will provide significant the CFD method in their studies [11].
economic savings. Deflector parts can be Chowdhury et al. [12] investigated the
attached to different parts of vehicles. Examples aerodynamic effects of various fuel-saving
of these are the underbody, the space between devices used in a commercial heavy vehicle. In
the tractor and the trailer, the vehicle wheels, the their study with experimental methods, they
side mirror, and the vehicle's upper area [6]. In subjected the 1/10 scale model truck to the wind
this study, the effect of the deflector part, which tunnel test to measure the amount of
will be used in the upper part of the truck, on the aerodynamic drag. They used different
aerodynamic performance has been numerically deflection angles and operating velocities
investigated. during these experiments. As a result, they
found that the devices they used, including the
2. Literature Review
deflector, reduced the aerodynamic drag by
Numerous academic studies have been approximately 26% on the vehicle model. Gao
conducted on the aerodynamic performance of et al. [13] designed different models of rear air
heavy vehicles such as trucks and lorries. deflectors to reduce aerodynamic drag in
Studies in recent years aim to save fuel by commercial trucks and compared these models
reducing the amount of drag in trucks. Most of with each other. In their study using the CFD
the studies have been done with the CFD method, they concluded that the base blades are
International Journal of Automotive Engineering and Technologies, IJAET 12 (1) 44-50 46

the most effective design among the tail air aerodynamic forces. The most important
deflectors and that approximately 7% drag aerodynamic forces are lift (FL) and drag (Fd).
reduction can be achieved with this design. Lift force is mostly calculated in aviation, while
Marks et al. [14] have studied the effective drag force is used in horizontal motion analysis.
forces in the aerodynamic drag of trucks. In their The drag force acts in the opposite direction to
experimental study, full-scale trucks moving at the solid surface moving in the fluid [5]. The
50 mph were used. For models with gap seals calculation of the aerodynamic drag force Fd is
and top deflectors, they achieved reductions of shown in Eq. (1).
up to 35% in zero yaw resistance coefficient and
up to 25% in wind average drag coefficient. 𝐹𝑑 = (1⁄2)𝐶𝑑 𝜌𝐴𝑉 2 ………….……….. (1)
Chilbule et al. [15] investigated the effect of
changes in the profile of trucks on fuel where Cd is drag coefficient, ρ is air density, A
consumption. They used the CFD method in is the projected frontal area of the body, and V
their studies. They compared the coefficient of is the truck's velocity [18]. As can be seen from
drag, lift coefficient, and pressure contours Eq. 1, the drag force is directly proportional to
between the modified and unmodified truck the front area of the vehicle and its velocity. The
model profiles. A wind deflector and swirl trap drag force is especially felt at high velocities.
modifications were made in the modified truck 60% of the fuel of the full truck and 40% of the
model. With these modifications, a 21% fuel of the empty truck is spent on drag [6].
reduction in aerodynamic drag was observed. Since the front area of the vehicle is directly
Chowdhury et al. [16] made calculations using proportional to the drag force, the effect of this
the CFD method to investigate the aerodynamic force on fuel consumption in trucks is higher
effect of various deflectors used in light trucks than in automobiles. Another factor affecting
used in Bangladesh and Pakistan. As a result, the drag force is vehicle roughness. It is
they have seen that they can reduce necessary to polish the rough surfaces where the
aerodynamic drag by around 22% in local drag force is an undesirable force [19]. If the
trucks, which are widely used in their country. vehicle windshield is inclined, the drag force
They also concluded that with the reduction in will decrease. There are academic studies on this
drag force, fuel consumption can be reduced by subject. The most well-known are the articles on
around 12%. Chowdhury et al. [17] conducted Ahmed body [20]. In this study, analyzes have
experiments in a wind tunnel environment to been made using the computational fluid
investigate the effect of deflector use on fuel dynamics (CFD) program. The calculated drag
consumption in locally produced trucks in force values have been obtained directly through
Bangladesh and Pakistan. As a result, they the codes in the program. There are steps to be
found that the use of deflectors reduced the total done when any analysis is desired in CFD
aerodynamic drag by 58% and fuel consumption programs. First, the dimensions of the model to
by 13%. The aim of this study is to examine the be analyzed should be determined and a
airflow around a moving truck and to examine geometric drawing should be made. Then the
the effect of the top deflector on aerodynamic drawn geometry is subjected to a meshing
drag. Truck models with and without top process called mesh. The reason for this is to
deflectors have been used in CFD analyses for provide the result sensitivity by dividing the
three different velocities. Boundary conditions structure to be analyzed into smaller parts. Then,
have been assumed to be the same for each the boundary conditions are determined, and the
analysis. The obtained drag force values from analysis is started. As a result of the analysis, the
result of the calculations have been compared values and images that are required to be
and interpreted. calculated are obtained as output.
3. Material and Methods The k-epsilon turbulence method has been used
3.1. Theoretical and mathematical in the analysis. The k-epsilon model is one of the
backround most widely used turbulence models, but that
doesn't well perform in cases of large adverse
The vertical and tangential forces acting on the pressure gradients [21]. It is a two-equation
surface of an object by the air create model, which includes two extra transport
47 International Journal of Automotive Engineering and Technologies, IJAET 12 (1) 44-50

equations to represent the turbulent properties of the analysis are given in Table 1.
the flow. This allows a two-equation model to
account for historical effects like convection and
diffusion of turbulent energy. The first
transported variable is turbulent kinetic energy,
k. The second transported variable, in this case,
is the turbulent dissipation, epsilon. It is the
variable that determines the scale of the
turbulence, whereas the first variable, k,
determine the energy in the turbulence [22].
Turbulence kinetic energy and dissipation
equations are given in Eq. (2) and Eq. (3). Figure 3. Dimensioning of the truck model
For turbulent kinetic Energy, k; Table 1. Dimensions of the truck geometry
∂(ρk) ∂(ρku ) ∂ μ ∂k Area Measure
∂t
+ ∂x i = ∂x [σ t ∂x ] + 2μt Eij Eij − ρε (2) Truck length 3.4 [m]
i j k j
Truck height 1 [m]
For dissipation, 𝜀; Truck width 1 [m]
Truck tipper length 3 [m]
∂(ρε) ∂(ρεui ) ∂ μ ∂ε ε
+ = ∂x [σt ∂x ] + C1ε k 2μt Eij Eij − Truck front hood length 0.4 [m]
∂t ∂xi j ε j Truck front hood height 0.6 [m]
ε2 Truck windshield height 0.4 [m]
C2ε ρ (3)
k Truck front area without top deflectors 0.8 [m2]
In Eq. 2 and Eq. 3 𝑢𝑖 is represents the velocity Truck front area with top deflectors 0.565 [m2]
Truck front area with top deflectors 0.565 [m2]
component in the corresponding direction, 𝐸𝑖𝑗 is
represents a component of the rate of To calculate the drag force on the truck, the
deformation, and 𝜇𝑡 is represents eddy viscosity domain must be created and the air flow around
[22]. it must be simulated. The created domain is
given in Figure 4.
3.2. Model confirmation
The truck without the top deflector used in the
analysis is given in Figure 1, the truck with the
top deflector is given in Figure 2 and the
dimensioning of the model is given in Figure 3.
These drawings have been made using ANSYS
Workbench. The drawn geometry is accepted as
a one-piece body.

Figure 4. The domain used in the analyzes

Meshing, also called finite element
discretization, is required to prepare the created
domain for analysis. In the meshing process, the
hexahedral and tetrahedral mesh has been used
Figure 1. Truck model without deflector
while creating the grids. Different element sizes
are used to create a more refined mesh. To
increase the accuracy of the results to be
obtained from the analysis, the amount of mesh
in the front of the truck has been increased and
the mesh sizes have been narrowed. The
generated mesh file has about 500,000 grid
Figure 2. Truck model with deflector
cells. The view of the obtained mesh structure is
The dimensions of the truck geometry used in given in Figure 5.
International Journal of Automotive Engineering and Technologies, IJAET 12 (1) 44-50 48

deflectors in trucks reduces the drag forces. This

will also reduce fuel consumption. The pressure
and velocity contours created by the drag force
around the moving vehicle in the front areas of
the truck models are given in Figure 6, Figure 7,
Figure 8, and Figure 9 for the velocity values of
50 km/h and 80 km/h, respectively.

Figure 5. The generated mesh structures

It is assumed that the lateral edges and upper and
lower surfaces of the domain are symmetrical.
In the analyzes made, the truck velocity has been
selected at three different values 50 km/h, 80
km/h, and 100 km/h. The selection of these
velocity values is because the trucks have
maximum velocity limits in the city, on the
intercity roads, and on the highways, Figure 6. Pressure contours of truck models at 50 km/h
respectively. Turbulence intensity and turbulent
viscosity ratio have been determined as 1% and
10%, respectively. These values are taken from
similar studies in the literature. RANS-based
Realizable k-ɛ model has been chosen as the
turbulence method in the analysis. The reason
for choosing this model is that it is frequently
preferred in aerodynamic force analysis studies
in the literature.
4. Results and Discussion
ANSYS Fluent program has been used in the
analysis. The drag force and drag coefficient Figure 7. Velocity contours of truck models at 50 km/h
values obtained from the calculations using
three different velocity values for the models
with and without top deflector of the truck in
motion are given in the table below.
Table 2. Drag forces according to different velocity
values
Velocity Drag force Drag
Truck model
[km/h] [N] coefficient
Without top
50 137.590 0.259
deflector
With top
50 104.193 0.196
deflector
Without top
80 351.066 0.660 Figure 8. Pressure contours of truck models at 80 km/h
deflector
With top By looking at the contours obtained from the
80 259.823 0.489
deflector
Without top
truck models moving at different velocities
100 548.295 1.032 given in Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8, and Figure
deflector
With top 9, it can be said that the pressure and velocity
100 394.768 0.743
deflector values affecting the front area increase with the
increase in the velocity of the vehicle. However,
According to the data in Table 1, the use of top it has been observed that increasing pressure and
49 International Journal of Automotive Engineering and Technologies, IJAET 12 (1) 44-50

velocity values can be reduced using top concluded that the use of top deflectors will
deflectors. reduce fuel consumption. It will be of great
benefit to the country's economy if the use of top
deflectors is primarily made widespread in
commercial trucks and then made compulsory in
the future. As a continuation of this study, the
prototype of the truck model used in the analysis
will be produced and subjected to wind tunnel
tests. In the tests to be made, different top
deflector geometries will be used, and the ideal
top deflector shape will be determined.
Table 3. Numerical results from analysis
Top Velocity Drag force Coefficient
Deflector [km/h] [N] of drag (cd)
Figure 9. Velocity contours of truck models at 80 km/h 50 137.590 0.259
5. Conclusions without 80 351.066 0.660
100 548.295 1.032
It has been observed that as the velocity of a 50 104.193 0.196
moving truck increases, the drag force increases with 80 259.823 0.489
with or without the use of a top deflector. While 100 394.768 0.743
the drag force of a truck moving at 50 km/h
6. References
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